How Are Our Gifts Eco Friendly?

Our Handmade Gifts are Eco Friendly and Meet Environmental Standards

As scientists, economists and policy makers have warned for several decades, most country’s current approach to production, distribution and consumption of food and nonfood products is unsustainable, even in the short-term. The United States provides a particularly relevant example; if every person in the world consumed at the rate of the average American, we would need the equivalent of three to five earths’ worth of resources. We all share the charge of consuming more responsibly if we hope to inhabit a similar planet several decades from now.

We carefully consider the ecological impact of each gift item made by our artisan partners. By supporting the market for handmade gifts, we help strengthen alternatives to the environmentally-ruinous consequences of mass production. Mass production of goods involves the construction of large-scale factories that disrupt surrounding ecosystems, consume massive amounts of electricity, pollute heavily into the surrounding community and often utilize non-biodegradable plastics and scarce metals.

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Handmade products, in contrast are eco friendly - they carry a relatively small carbon footprint. Artisans often work in their homes and in workshop settings, thereby limiting the pollution and byproducts produced by factory machinery. Many of our partners create crafts from renewable plant matter, use vegetable rather than chemical dyes, or utilize recycled materials that would otherwise end up in landfills. Where this is not yet the case, our artisan groups are working to source sustainable and local raw materials, use recycled matter and produce products in an environmentally conscious manner. At the very least, all our products meet the environmental standards required by membership to the Fair Trade Federation and Green America (formerly Coop America).

Our partners take greening to heart in different ways:

Collecting trash from the streets of Cambodia pays off for Friends-International (FI), a cooperative in Cambodia that makes handcrafted accessories from local, recyclable materials. FI uses found and recycled materials (newspapers, comics, magazines, packaging, rice bags, tin and sarong fabric), making each product unique while keeping garbage off the streets and out of overflowing landfills. Local businesses also contribute to this project by donating recyclable materials for reuse. Purchase eco friendly gifts to help fund additional FI programs.

For centuries, the rural people of Swaziland have harvested tough lutindzi grass, which grows in rocky outcrops high in the country's granite mountains, to make rope and bags. The craftswomen of Gone Rural add contemporary creativity to this ancient tradition, as they utilize a resource that even grazing cattle cannot consume. Women collect the grass after heavy rains, carefully leaving the roots in the soil to ensure its re-growth the following year. They also use a specially designed fuel-efficient wood-burning boiler for the dyeing process, one that uses 150 percent less wood than the traditional method. Buy handwoven African baskets from these women and similar groups to support green production.

In the rural farming village of Etikoppaka in Southern India, the entire production process is plant-based. To replace the toxic lacquers we are accustomed to in the west, Etikoppaka artisans from the Community Friendly Movement derive their dye from a variety of local trees and plants which they grind into powder, boil into a thick lather, cool and mix with a tree-sap based lacquer. The colored lacquer is then stretched, cooled, cut and applied to products made from local ankudu wood. Even the finishing is plant-centric; the women artisans gloss their products by rubbing the surface with a mogali leaf. Purchase handmade jewelry from India to support Indian artisans.

In Bolivia, women of the Asociación Artesanos Andinos utilize the traditional method of weaving,  employing all natural materials and 100 percent alpaca wool. They dye their wool with an assortment of local plants - eucalyptus and molle for green, lampaya and lloke for brown and chacatea for yellow. They even use an insect - cochinilla - for reds and purples. Buy fair trade shawls and scarves to support these artisans.

Achieving global eco-conscious consumption ultimately requires advocacy, policy change and the support of grassroots social movements. But its success depends on the combined impact of eco-conscious purchases like yours and knowledge of the issues. Please check out these links to learn more and take further action.